Read Bone River for Free Online

hesitated, but then he motioned for the other man to follow, and the two of them started up the crushed oyster-shell path to the house. When they had gone a short distance, I pulled my arm from Bibi’s hold and said, “What message, Bibi?”
    She said, “I have a
dleam.
”
    I had been curious, but now I realized Lord Tom had been right. This was just more of the nonsense we’d all come to expect from Bibi. “A dream? Was the Duke in it? Did he tell you it was about time to trade his things? You could use a new pair of boots, I think.”
    “About you.” She leaned forward, her dark eyes huge and strange in the broad flatness of her face. “
Mika mesachie mitlite.
In my
dleam
, I see this.”
    You are in danger.
    The hair on the back of my neck raised. Again I felt that strange sense of someone watching. Uncomfortably I glanced toward the cut in the river. “I’m in the middle of something, Bibi. Go get some coffee and I’ll—”
    “It is about the
memalose kopa chuck
.”
    The dead in the river.
    I froze. “The
what
?”
    She nodded with obvious satisfaction. “Now you listen,
nah
? The
tomawanos
calls for you. What she wants, I do not know, but it is you she wants.”
    “Wait,” I said. “Say that again. What do you mean? What
memalose kopa chuck
?”
    “
No klap
?” she asked in surprise. “You will.”
    “Yes, I found a body in the river. Well, not a body, really, but...but...how do you know this? How do you know about her? I only found her yesterday.”
    “I have a
dleam
,” she said simply.
    “Bibi, who told you about the mummy?”
    She said again, “My
dleam
.”
    Said as if it were the only answer to give, regardless of how impossible it was. I sighed in frustration.
    She said, “She says to tell you he will come soon.
Kloshe nanitch.
”
    Keep watch. Be careful.
Again, I felt that shiver. I forced it away. “He? Who’s he? What nonsense is this?”
    “
Wake hehe, ipsoot klooshman.
”
    This is serious, sly wife.
Her favorite nickname for me.
    “It
is
serious. Which is why I wish you wouldn’t say anything about the mummy, Bibi. Please. I don’t want the word to get out. I want some time to study her, and—” I stopped. She wasn’t listening. Instead, she was digging around in the pocket of her skirt. “Did you hear me, Bibi? Please. Keep it secret.
Ipsoot.
”
    She pulled something from her pocket, holding it out to me. “You take this.”
    What was in her palm was a bracelet, and nothing fine. A few strings of twine—and store bought at that—knotted through five charms, all made of abalone shell, their iridescence flashing rainbows, each etched with some figure, a few lines. A worthless, ugly thing.
    “She wants you to wear it.” When I made no move to take it, Bibi shoved it at me again. “You must wear it.”
    “I’m not much for finery—”
    “Take it.”
    There was no point in arguing. The sooner I took it, the sooner I could be back to the river. I plucked it from her hand. “Thank you.”
    She looked at me for a moment, as if she were trying to read something in my face, and then she turned away with a nod, seemingly satisfied, and trudged down the path toward the canoe without another word.
    She didn’t look back, and I dropped the bracelet into my coat pocket, feeling unsettled, not knowing what to think. She was a strange old woman, and I was glad she was going. She stood by the canoe now, waiting, and I knew she wouldn’t budge until Michael returned to take her back to town, so I strode quickly to the house, hurrying up the stairs. Michael and Lord Tom were standing in the kitchen, each with a cup of coffee, and I called out, “She’s waiting to go back, Michael, so you’d best hurry. You know she’ll stand there in the cold all day.”
    “What did she want?”
    “She had a dream she wanted to tell me about,” I said.
    “Siwash mumbo jumbo?”
    “Something like.” I grimaced. “I’m sorry you had to come out all this way for it.”
    I left